


Parallel Universes

by StarStuff42



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: F/F, M/M, Science
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:37:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStuff42/pseuds/StarStuff42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slight AU centered around the Sandstorm episode (19). Carlos and his team of scientists investigate a variety of phenomena in Night Vale only to discover something shocking about Carlos himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“ _Electrons act like waves...no they don't, exactly. They act like particles...no they don't, exactly. They act like sugar high sea otters who have been trained in the art of knife throwing._ _Welcome to Night Vale.”_

 

“Ha, Carlos, you have Cecil quoting Richard Feynman now?” asked a tall man clad in a white Lab Coat, carrying a sample of glowing green rock. A shorter scientist, holding a culture of purple bacteria, leaned over to turn the radio up.

“I was trying to explain quantum mechanics to him over dinner last week. It ended with him misunderstanding Schrodinger's Cat and hiding Khoshekh from me” Carlos said with a sigh, wavy black hair with a streak of white brushing his shoulders as he shook his head at his boyfriend's voice on the radio. Leon the Geologist put the glowing rock into a gamma ray spectroscopy machine as the music faded out and a deep, smooth voice filled the small lab once again.

 

“ _Listeners, as you may know, I am very into science these days. Except quantum mechanics, Schrodinger can take a hike. Anyway, my beautiful, science boyfriend_ _Carlos wanted me to warn you about the tomatoes growing from the desert cacti. Apparently his team of scientists have discovered that they cause every cell in your body to implode, resulting in a horrifyingly painful death. Neat!”_

 

“Thank you again, Monica” Carlos said, nodding to the microbiologist with short black and red hair.

“You're a life saver, literally!” Leon the geologist said as Monica and Carlos glared at him. “That was really Gneiss of you.”

“Oh my god, the rock puns need to stop” Monica said angrily.

“We should never take you for Granite around here” Leon continued with a huge smile and received a punch on the arm from Monica.

 

“ _In other news, John Peters—you know, the Farmer—has reported a shimmering veil out in his fields. He said that our normal deer have been disappearing in his field and instead he's been finding strange deer without real estate agents. They don't appear to be time traveling either. Weird. More on this as it develops.”_

 

A fourth scientist stormed into the room, bushy brown hair haphazardly pulled back, carrying a large notebook and a calculator.

“Carlos,” she said “I believe I just found the correct Hamiltonian operator from the data we collected out by the sand wastes, but it doesn't satisfy the Ehrenfest theorem! I've been freaking out all morning, could you check my math?”

“Sure thing, Cailey, how's your wormhole generator coming along?” Carlos replied calmly, taking the notebook full of equations from the clearly frazzled physicist.

“I think it's nearly done, it just needs some adjustments to the Lorentz modifier. But if these calculations on quantum probability are correct, I don't know what that means for Einstein's equations! The laws of physics don't make sense, and I've redone my calculations at least ten times” Cailey the Physicist said, throwing her hands up. Cailey sat down at large lab bench next to Monica as Carlos methodically ran through her notes.

 

“ _Oh, bad news Listeners! It appears that Intern Neil didn't get the warning about the tomatoes, and ate some of the salsa in the break room fridge...Carlos and his scientists really weren't kidding. Condolences to Intern Neil's family...Um, Listeners, something just appeared in the studio. I thought it was a piece of the glow cloud above me, but as I looked up, sand fell on my face instead of live animals. It's gone now, although I feel like there is a bright shimmering that has embedded itself behind my eyelids. Ow.”_

 

“Huh, that's weird. Cecil described John Peter's fields as shimmering as well. Do you think it's related?” Monica asked Cailey and Leon as Carlos furiously rummaged through some physics textbooks.

“Sand? Did he say sand?” Cailey asked, eyes widening. “Carlos, call Cecil right now and tell him to save some of that sand! I need to analyze it to compare with the data from the sand wastes!”

“I will call during the weather...Cailey are you sure your Schrodinger equation is correct? I know it's been a long time since my physics Masters program, but I could swear the constants were different” Carlos replied, flipping through the text book.

“Of course I have the Schrodinger equation correct! I worked with it in my PhD thesis!” Cailey snapped quickly.

“Well, it looks like you're right. That is so strange, I could have sworn these wave functions had different constants” Carlos said, running a hand through his perfect hair.

“It's okay, Carlos, memory loss is a natural symptom of aging” Leon said as Cailey and Monica both punched him in the arm.

“What? He still looks great for an old man! At least he has that perfect hair...” Leon continued as Cailey and Monica punched him again, harder.

 

“ _I take you now, to the Weather”_

 

Carlos grabbed his phone from the lab bench and dialed Cecil's number as Monica turned the radio down.

“Hi, Cecil? It's Carlos...Yes, I heard your introduction, it was very cute...Yes, you almost had the quote right...Yes, thank you for announcing the tomatoes, I appreciate it. Anyway, Cecil, we heard your story about the sand falling on your head at the station, and Postdoc Cailey would like to analyze it, could you bring a sample by after the show? Thanks love. Can't wait to see you. Love you too, bye.” Carlos hung up with a click of his phone, and turned back around to face his scientists.

“Alright kids, Cailey looks like she has her hands full with this sand anomaly. Leon, could you perform some tests on the composition of the sand? That might help us understand why its quantum structure is not behaving as it should. Monica, could you check Cecil's eyes when he comes over? He's still complaining about the shimmering, so if you could examine him I would appreciate that” Carlos said.

 

“ _Once again, night vale, we find ourselves floating upon this pale blue dot, our spaceship through the void as we travel around our sun, and as our moon—which none of you are allowed to think about—travels in turn around us, mimicking the orbit of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Go about your night, an atom compared to the universe, while all of the atoms in your body do the same. Goodnight, Night Vale, Goodnight”_ The Baritone voice ceased as static took over the airwaves and Monica switched the radio off.

 

Roughly ten minutes later there came a knock at the door, and Carlos turned off his bunsen burner to go answer it. The door swung open to reveal the Voice of Night Vale dressed in his usual purple button up shirt, sleeves rolled up in the desert heat, accompanied by a loosened neck-tie. The smile that lit up Cecil's face upon seeing his boyfriend couldn't help but force Carlos to smile as well. Cecil stepped into the lab and set a small container on the nearest table before striding over to Carlos and throwing his arms around him.

“You're so cute with those safety goggles on your head” Cecil said as he nuzzled his head on Carlos's shoulder.

“Oh, whoops, I forgot to take them off” Carlos replied, blushing.

“Leave them, my dear scientist” Cecil replied, trailing butterfly kisses up Carlos's neck. Carlos's eyes fluttered shut as he threaded his hand through Cecil's blond hair.

“Hey there, someone better measure Carlos on the Mohs scale of hardness” Leon said from the doorway.

“Man, Cecil must be DNA-Helicase cause he is unzipping Carlos's Genes” Monica replied without missing a beat.

“Wow, Heisenberg was wrong, I'm certain about what they're doing tonight” Cailey piped it.

Carlos and Cecil pulled apart, and turned to see all three postdocs leaning against the doorway, smirking. Carlos blushed furiously, but Cecil turned to grab the small container he had set down.

“I believe a curious physicist was looking for some sand?” Cecil said, voice much higher than his usual baritone, as Cailey strode forward to take the small vile.

“Did you notice anything unusual when the sand rained down on you? Temporal disturbances, existence flickering in and out, Einstein-Rosen bridges?” Cailey asked Cecil.

“Um, nope, just the shimmering, which is still bothering my eyes” Cecil replied as he rubbed his eyes underneath his thick-rimmed glasses.

“Cecil, if you don't mind, could Postdoc Monica give you a quick eye inspection?” Carlos asked as Cecil nodded and followed the microbiologist back to her work bench.

Monica pulled out a kit of medical equipment, and Carlos went back to torching his sample of sulphur with the bunsen burner. The piece of bright yellow rock turned red and started to melt. Carlos stared at the disappearing rock, utterly confounded. Pushing his safety googles up into his mess of perfect hair and switching off the gas to the burner, Carlos scribbled furious notes in a book next to the fume hood.

“Red...why red? It doesn't make any sense” Carlos muttered as he documented the simple experiment.

“Carlos, if you don't mind me asking, why are you documenting the colour of sulphur when heated? You have a PhD in chemistry, have you never melted sulphur before?” Monica asked, and Carlos turned to see her shining a light in Cecil's eyes and inspecting closely.

“Well, yes, of course I have. But sulphur turns blue when you melt it, this is turning red!” Carlos said as he strode over to sit on the lab bench next to Cecil and Monica.

“I'm not a chemistry expert, but all the sulphur I've ever melted has been red, Carlos” Monica replied, putting down her flashlight and pulling a syringe from her medical kit.

“No, I may have mistaken the constants involved in Cailey's equations earlier, but I am not mistaken in this. I am absolutely positive, sulphur turns blue” Carlos insisted.

“Okay well, I guess we'll have to look into it more. In the meantime, Cecil, I can't detect anything unusual in your eyes. You may have a few particles of sand left over, so you can try rinsing your eyes. I would, however, like to take a blood sample in case any of it got into your system” Monica replied as Cecil nodded in agreement, blinking furiously.

“Also, Carlos, I don't have any blood samples on hand since the Sheriff's Secret Police confiscated all of mine. Could I take a sample of your blood to run some standards on before I look at Cecil's?” Monica asked as Carlos rolled his sleeves up in compliance. After taking samples of both of their blood, Carlos went around the lab turning off all remaining hot plates, burners, and fume hoods.

“Ready to go home, Cec?” Carlos asked, returning to Cecil and taking his boyfriend's hands in his. Cecil nodded and Carlos threw his safety goggles in his lab coat pocket as he hung the coat up on the hook labeled 'Carlos the Scientist'.

“Hey Team,” Carlos called as Cecil dragged him toward the door, “I'm heading out for the night. Monica, you're in charge of closing the lab up, and making sure Cailey doesn't spontaneously combust from physics confusion overload. See you all in the morning!”

“Goodnight, Carlos's lab, goodnight” Cecil added, full radio-voice mode. Cecil and Carlos left the lab and got into Cecil's car.

“So, my apartment tonight?” Cecil asked, giving Carlos obvious bedroom eyes.

“Sí, mi querido, me gustaría” Carlos replied, switching to use his thick accent.

“Oooh, Carlos, it's so caliente when you speak spanish” Cecil replied, turning the car on and shifting into drive as Carlos cracked up laughing.

“Casi, mi amor, casi pero...no” Carlos replied, chuckling and patting Cecil's knee reassuringly. Carlos tried to push the disconcerting thoughts of the day—the equations, the sulphur, the sand—from his mind and enjoy being with his beloved Voice of Night Vale.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Cailey the physicist groaned as her alarm went off, and rolled over in bed to find it empty. The smell of coffee wafted through the open door and Cailey begrudgingly dragged herself out of bed and into the kitchen.

Monica stood by the coffee pot, sipping from her _Lord of the Rings_ mug, and smiled as her groggy girlfriend reached for her own _Star Trek_ mug, hair entirely disheveled.

“Morning sunshine” Monica giggled, taking another sip of coffee.

“Uh, Morning” Cailey replied, kissing Monica lightly before leaning against the counter and sipping her own coffee. “Seven in the morning should not be a legal time, how is anyone expected to think about existence and the universe this early?”

“That's what the coffee is for, sweetie” Monica replied, smirking.

“I have so much to do today...so much sand to analyze, so many equations to solve...something is so wrong with this sand” Cailey said with a sigh.

“Do you have any hypotheses?” Monica asked.

“A few...but they're all bordering science fiction. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I mean, I can't just say 'Hey Carlos, I think this sand is distorting the fabric of time and space, it's creating a wormhole between universes, how cool is that!' he would think I'm crazy” Cailey replied, sleepiness disappearing thanks to the coffee and physics.

“Wait, do actually think something like that is happening?” Monica asked incredulously.

“Would you think I'm crazy if I said yes?” Cailey asked, turning to face her girlfriend.

“Darling, I already know you're crazy” Monica said, setting her coffee mug down and putting her arms around Cailey's waist. Monica tilted her head up to kiss her slightly taller girlfriend, who responded by running her hands through Monica's hair and willingly obliged. The kiss tasted of warm coffee, but just as the two scientists began melting into it, a loud pop came from the counter. Breaking apart, Cailey saw the toaster pop up two pieces of whole wheat toast.

“Monica! You naughty girl” Cailey said as she pushed Monica back against the counter.

“What, this?” Monica said as she took a piece from the toaster and buttered it “Just some wheat and wheat by-products!” Monica batted her eyelashes innocently at Cailey as she took a bite of toast.

“Oh sweet Carl Sagan, that's bad” Cailey said as she tugged Monica back toward their bedroom.

“I doubt Carlos will mind if we're a tad late” Monica muttered between bites.

 

…

 

“Buenos mañana, cariño” Carlos said as he brought a cup of coffee to the still sleepy man in his bed.

“Hmmm” Cecil muttered warmly as he accepted the coffee. Carlos sat down on the bed next to his boyfriend and Cecil dropped his head onto Carlos's shoulder.

“Cecil, can I ask you a very important question?” Carlos said, switching to english.

“Of course dear Carlos” Cecil replied as Carlos ran a hand affectionately through Cecil's tousled hair.

“Have you noticed anything strange with my memory? Have I been forgetting things, or mixing simple things up lately?” Carlos asked

“No, not at all, Carlos! In fact, you've been better about remembering the City Council's rules, and remembering our dates.” Cecil lifted his head from Carlos's shoulder, worry creasing his brow, “Why would you ask that, what's wrong?”

“At the lab yesterday, I got the constants wrong on an equation I've worked with many times before, and I somehow have confused the colour of sulphur during a phase change. I don't know how it's possible” Carlos said, clearly distressed.

“Well, I don't know much about science, but you're the smartest man I know” Cecil said, giving Carlos a peck on the nose.

“I'm very concerned, Cecil. What if this makes me” Carlos said as his voice dropped to a whisper, “incompetent.”

“Carlos, my dearest scientist, you are the most competent man I know. Not just in science, either” Cecil said with a wink. Cecil set his coffee cup down on the bedside stand and crawled into his boyfriend's lap. Straddling the confused scientist, Cecil ran his hands down Carlos's T-shirt and kissed him intently. After a a few moments of kissing, Carlos let out a soft moan and dislodged his face from Cecil's.

“Cecil, mi amor, as much as I'd love to stay here with you, I need to get to work” Carlos said, releasing another, louder, moan as Cecil kissed his way down Carlos's neck and chest.

“Dios mio, holy Galileo” Carlos groaned as Cecil unzipped his jeans and Carlos tangled his hands into his boyfriend's hair. Carlos thought _'I don't think anyone will mind if I'm a little late'_ as he threw his head back against the headboard and clung to Cecil's hair for dear life.

 

…

 

“Hey, there's my favorite science lesbians” Leon the geologist said with a beaming smile as Cailey and Monica entered the lab.

“Shut up” they both replied in tandem as they each went to their respective work spaces.

“Gee, I wonder why you're both late. Cailey, does Monica make your Bedrock?” Leon continued, still grinning.

“Leon, I will take one of your goddamn radioactive rocks from Radon Cañon, and I will shove it up your...” Monica began, but was cut off by the dinging of Leon's equipment for analyzing the chemical structure of the sand. Curiosity drew the geologist away from Cailey and Monica and toward his electron scanning microscopes.

Monica took the vials containing Cecil and Carlos's blood out of the centrifuge and added the necessary enzymes for DNA-fractionation. Using a pipette, she then carefully distributed the solution into a gel for electrophoresis.

“Huh, that's funny” Leon said loudly.

“The most interesting phrase in science” said Monica, as Cailey rushed over the the microscope.

“Cailey, look at this. The composition of this sand is really standard, and the same as the rest of the sand I've looked at in Night Vale. But look at this, they're all isomers. No matter how you rotate the molecule, it doesn't line up with the usual ones” Leon said as he let Cailey view the sand.

“Isomers, of these rocks? I'm no geologist, but I don't think that happens very often. These look like they formed with entirely different conditions, for example, under different forces” Cailey said as she analyzed the isomers. The door to the lab opened, and Carlos walked in, pulling on his lab coat.

“Avengers, assemble!” declared Carlos, indicating for his team to gather around his main lab bench. “How are things looking this morning?”

“Well, we found that the sand raining in Cecil's office has a reversed structure to normal sand. Every compound is an isomer” Leon said, Cailey nodding in agreement.

“Okay, that's very unusual. Cailey, any thoughts about how that connects to the quantum anomalies?” Carlos asked.

“Well, yes...okay this is really embarrassing, please don't think I'm crazy...” Cailey began but was interrupted by Monica.

“Holy freaking Rosalind Franklin, this can't be right” burst Monica as Carlos rushed over to her electrophoresis plates. “Carlos, your DNA is...backward! The double helix structure is wrapped the wrong way!”

“It's almost like it's...mirrored” Carlos began.

“Like it's passed through the looking glass” Monica chimed in.

“I've been making Alice in Wonderland references since the day I stepped foot in Night Vale, because this place is a scientific rabbit hole, but this is...I don't know what this is” Carlos admitted “It's as if all of the laws of physics have been slightly tweaked.”

“It's like my isomers! Chemically the same molecule, but structured in reverse” Leon added. They all stood in tense silence for a few moments, each scientist trying to put the puzzle together in their minds.

“Carlos, can I ask you a few questions, in my lab” Cailey asked, after staring intently at the DNA helices in front of Monica.

“Certainly” Carlos responded before following her into a room strewn with electric equipment, and all sorts of engineering parts he was familiar with from undergrad.

“Carlos, you've been in night vale for roughly a year and a half. I met you when I applied here for a postgrad position, but the only thing I remember about your arrival was Cecil's announcements on the radio. Do you remember much about how you physically arrived in Night Vale and where you were before?” Cailey asked, settling onto a lab stool.

“Of course. I was given a grant to study what was referred to the most scientifically interesting town in the world...although I must admit, I thought it was spelled differently. It must have been misspelled on all of my grants. So, I was driving along when...well a large sandstorm hit. I pulled over because I couldn't see a thing. But then it passed, and I was here, in Night Vale” Carlos told her.

“Carlos, don't you see, this is why you mixed up the constants for my wave equations yesterday! I know that relativity and quantum mechanics are still not unified, but do you think it's possible...” Cailey began to ask just as Carlos's phone began to ring.

“I'm really sorry, this is Cecil, one minute Cailey” Carlos said as he answered his phone.

“Hi Cecil...what's wrong?...Cecil calm down, are you alright?...I'll be right there” Carlos said before hanging up and nearly leaping off of his lab bench.

“I'm so sorry guys, I need to go help Cecil, I don't know what's wrong” Carlos said before storming out of the building, lab coat still on. 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Carlos rushed into the Night Vale Community Radio station, throwing doors open haphazardly.

“Cecil! Cecil!” Carlos called as he rushed through the station. As he reached the locked door of the recording booth, Carlos looked inside to see Cecil facing the opposite direction, closely inspecting something on the desk. Carlos knocked on the door, but as Cecil turned around Carlos realized with sudden panic that Cecil was not Cecil.

The man who should have been Cecil had darker skin, closer to Carlos's own, and an eerily wide smile filled with teeth made him appear more Cheshire cat than human. As not-Cecil went to open the door, Carlos noticed the most un-Cecil feature of all: his eyes. Where Cecil's large, vibrant, purple eyes had been, this not-Cecil had black voids.

Not-Cecil opened the locked door with a click, and Carlos's panic churned his insides and propelled his heart into frantic pounding.

“You must be Carlos!” said not-Cecil in a voice two octaves too high, and with such sickening cheer.

“Who the hell are you...where is Cecil?” Carlos asked, suppressing the urge to throw up.

“Hi, I'm Kevin!” the not-Cecil said as he held out his hand for Carlos to shake. Carlos realized with horror that the hand was covered in blood. Carlos was struck with horror at the thought that the blood belonged to Cecil, and he forced that thought from his mind.

“Where the name of Isaac Newton is Cecil?” Carlos asked, and when Kevin simply tilted his head in confusion, Carlos screamed “CECIL GERSHWIN PALMER, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?”

“Well, friend, I have no clue. One minute I was preparing for my radio show in my Desert Bluffs Community Radio station, the next I was here, in this unfamiliar studio” Kevin said, sounding far too happy about the whole situation.

Carlos pushed past the not-Cecil who called himself Kevin into the recording booth. Cecil's notes for the day's program sat unfinished on his desk, and sand still littered the floor of the booth. On the desk next to his notes sat a framed picture of Carlos with hearts drawn around it, and 'Cecil + Carlos 4ever' written in the corner. Cecil's cell phone sat upon his desk, showing an unsent text message:

“Carlos, I don't know what's happening. Come quickly please, I love you”.

Sinking down into Cecil's chair, Carlos put his head on the desk and tears started flowing, staining Cecil's notes and blurring his handwriting. Carlos was wrenched from his thoughts of never seeing his beloved again as he heard something fall behind him.

Turning around, Carlos saw Kevin collapsed on the floor, clutching his face. Not-Cecil gave a distressed cry as his form began to flash and shimmer. Rushing to him, Carlos saw his very body growing insubstantial, as if flickering in and out of existence, and he found that Kevin was no longer made of solid matter as he had been moments ago.

As his form flickered, like a signal being interrupted by the background static of the universe, Carlos's heart leapt as a purple pinstripe shirt replaced the yellow of Kevin's. Kevin's black hair turned blond, and his skin lightened a few shades. After a few moments of static, the form crouched on the floor began to solidify again. Carlos reached out a hand to touch the man in front of him, and he heard the familiar baritone voice groan. The man looked up, and Carlos was hit with an intense wave of relief as he realized it was Cecil.

“Carlos?” Cecil asked in a rather quiet, meek voice.

“Cecil, oh Cecil, I'm here” Carlos said as he cupped Cecil's face with one hand and wrapped the other around his shoulders.

“Carlos, what happened? I was here, sitting at my desk, when I started having the most intense headache of my life, then I looked down and couldn't see my body! I thought I had died...but then I was in the most disgusting place I had ever seen...I thought I was in hell” Cecil rambled.

“Shh, mi querido, todo esta bien” Carlos said, embracing Cecil in a hug.

“Carlos,” said Cecil in a near whisper “I thought I would never see you again.”

“Me too, Cec, me too” Carlos responded, holding his love tighter. They stayed that way for several minutes before Cecil pulled away.

“I suppose I should get back to preparing for my radio show now” Cecil said.

“No, Cecil, you're coming with me. I'm not letting you out of my sight” Carlos responded, and grinned at the blush that lit up Cecil's face.

…

 

“Cailey, love, somehow it's already dark out and the invisible teleporting clock says it's after seven pm” Monica said as she entered the physicist's lab. Cailey sat tweaking her wormhole generator, countless pages strewn with messy equations littered every surface.

“How is it night, we've only been here for an hour or two?” Cailey replied, putting down her screwdriver and looking up at her girlfriend.

“I don't know, but Leon and I just packed up. Do you want to go get some dinner?” Monica asked.

“I'm nearly done with this, I'd like to stay and finish” Cailey said. Monica frowned and walked over to her sitting girlfriend, wrapping her arms around her from behind and resting her chin on the top of Cailey's head.

“You should really take a break. You look so tired and stressed” Monica said.

“I feel like I'm on the verge of discovering something important. Weird stuff is happening in Night Vale—and I mean weirder than normal. You know that. This time thing for instance, what if this is a consequence of the sand stuff as well? I mean space and time are inseparably intertwined, so if the fabric of space-time is disintegrating...” Monica cut Cailey off by turning around to face her and kissing her softly on the lips.

“Everything will still be here tomorrow” Monica said, pushing Cailey's safety goggles up and cupping her cheek.

“But that's the thing, I'm not sure it will be” Cailey said to a pouting Monica.

“Go ahead, go get dinner with Leon. I'll finish up and come home later” Cailey said, taking Monica's hand in hers.

“Well, I don't think I'll be able to change your mind. Be careful, don't do anything stupid” Monica said as she let go of Cailey's hands to hold her head. Monica kissed her girlfriend passionately, tilting her head to get as close as possible. Monica broke off the brief but feverish kiss and replaced it with one light quick one before releasing her face and standing.

“See you later, Monica, love you” Cailey said as she watched Monica leave.

“Love you too” Monica replied before leaving the small lab.

 

After an hour or so of silent progress, Cailey heard the door to her tiny lab creak open slowly.

“Carlos?” Cailey asked, but the form who walked in was not Carlos the Scientist.

…

 

Cecil and Carlos stepped outside the Night Vale radio station hand in hand, surprised to find it already dark.

“Oh, I see time isn't cooperating with the laws of physics either. How wonderful” Carlos muttered.

“So, are we going back to your lab? Do you need to run some tests on me?” Cecil asked apprehensively.

“I should, but my team has probably left by now. I'm not going to” Carlos said with a grin “I'm going to be irresponsible and take you on a romantic date.”

“Oh Carlos, you bad boy” Cecil said lightly hitting Carlos's arm. Carlos grabbed his boyfriend's hands and kissed him before dragging Cecil to his car.

“So, where are we going on this irresponsible date?” Cecil said, sliding into the passenger's seat with a wink.

“You'll see” Carlos said as he started his car and drove through the streets of Night Vale, driving with one hand as Cecil held the other. Carlos heard Cecil give a surprised laugh as they pulled into the parking lot of Arby's. The couple walked into the Arby's and ordered two wheat and wheat by-product free approved meals and two milkshakes.

After they received their food, Carlos took Cecil's hand and dragged him back to his car and crawled up onto the hood. Cecil and Carlos each pulled out their meals—careful to pick out the tomatoes—and ate in companionable science, Carlos making the occasional joke about the existence of mountains or shadow figures.

After they had finished, Carlos leaned back against the windshield with his hands behind his head. Cecil followed suit, resting his head on Carlos's shoulder, whose arm wrapped around Cecil's shoulders.

“There are so many more stars visible here than back home. Cecil, look at all those points of light. Each of those are like our own sun, so very far away” Carlos said quietly.

“It's so hard to imagine, they look so tiny, so cool” Cecil responded.

“Ha, not in the slightest. Each speck is a cosmic furnace, fusing elements together in the tumultuous core, seeking fragile stability” Carlos told Cecil with a small laugh.

“Stars are weird” Cecil noted.

“That's not even close to the weirdest part about stars” Carlos explained. “You see, some stars are much bigger than our sun, and if they explode, they fuse very heavy elements, like the radioactive stuff in Radon Cañon.” Cecil gave a quick nod of understanding before Carlos continued.

“But those stars don't live for very long, Cec. When those stars die, they go supernova. Sometimes they form a neutron star or pulsar, and sometimes the form a black hole! Nothing can escape a black hole Cecil, not even light” Carlos described.

“That makes me sad. Something that once produced light starts to destroy it” Cecil lamented.

“Yeah, but Cecil, it also creates life. You see, when a star goes supernova, it spews out all of it's outer layers. All the elements that the star fused are flung through space to form a nebula. Then gravity takes over and pulls all of the star's...stuff together. That's where planets, and comets, and everything out in space comes from” Carlos explained, voice rising in excitement. “The Earth is made from the stuff that was flung from dying stars.”

Cecil was quiet for a long moment before asking, “Really?”

“Yes, Cec, really. And you” Carlos said, tapping his finger on Cecil's nose, “are also made of star stuff.”

“I'm made from...stars?” Cecil asked, examining his own hand.

“You sure are. You and I are made from the same molecules as the rest of the cosmos. That makes us an integral part of the universe” Carlos responded.

“So, right now, we are star stuff, gazing up at starlight?” Cecil asked.

“Yes, mi querido. We are a way for the universe to know itself! We're a brief manifestation of molecules and particles that came from the universe, and will someday return to the universe” Carlos mused.

“Carlos...I have goosebumps” Cecil responded.

“We may be two people, on a fairly small planet, around a very average sun, on the outskirts of the galaxy, but the odds of existence at all are so slim. Cecil, always be proud of your place in the Cosmos. It is small, and yet, it is!” Carlos declared excitedly.

“That's...so neat, Carlos! It's perfect, the universe is perfect, you're perfect” Cecil declared as he grabbed Carlos's face and kissed him. Carlos eagerly responded, holding the back of Cecil's neck to pull him closer. Cecil deepened the kiss as he threaded his fingers through Carlos's hair. Running his hands down Cecil's back and back up to grip his shoulders, Carlos felt floods of emotions he could barely process: the soaring elation of pondering the universe, the important insignificance of his place in the cosmos, and his overwhelming love for this other human. Carlos's love for the universe and love for Cecil melded together to intoxicate his mind and make his heart flutter wildly.

Momentarily stopping the kiss, Carlos rested his forehead against Cecil's and stared into his familiar violet eyes.

“Cecil, I fell in love with the universe at a young age, that's why I'm a scientist. But the universe is a large and lonely place to explore by oneself. I felt so lost and so cut off for so long. Cecil, I've studied the universe my whole life, but now I understand that for small creatures such as we, the vastness of the universe is bearable only through love. I thought I would be satisfied with my love for the universe, but the love I feel for you...” Carlos declared, but was cut off once again by Cecil kissing him.

“Come on, let's get you home” Carlos said with a peck on Cecil's nose. As Carlos crawled off of the hood of the car, he gazed up at the stars one more time. Holding Cecil's hand, Carlos thought of one more scientific thought he wanted to share with Cecil.

“Hey Cec, want to know the coolest thing of all? All of those stars and galaxies are moving away from us. The universe is expanding, and dragging everything along with it! If we lived at a very different point in the universe's history, we wouldn't be able to see all of these amazing things. That makes our existence even more remarkable” Carlos explained. It's also lucky that the energy of empty space, the cosmological constant, is exactly what it is, otherwise we would see a very different night sky, Carlos thought to himself.

At the word Constant, Carlos felt a violent pang of understanding. Looking away from Cecil, back up to sky filled to the brim with unfamiliar stars and constellation. 'Carlos, don't you see, this is why you mixed up the constants for my wave equations yesterday!' Cailey's voice replayed in Carlos's head. The sand isomers, the reversed DNA, the red sulphur...the incorrect equations and the shimmering.

“No, no, it can't be, it's not possible” Carlos muttered softly.

“Darling, what's wrong, what's not possible” Cecil responded, worried.

“The constants, Cecil, the constants of the universe are all wrong” Carlos continued. “There's nothing wrong with my memory, Cecil, it's just that I...”

“Tell me, Carlos, you what?” Cecil responded, gripping Carlos's shoulders.

“Cailey was trying to tell me, and I kept ignoring her! Oh sweet mother of Stephen Hawking, this is straight out of science fiction” Carlos said.

“What is going on” Cecil asked, growing impatient and concerned.

“Cecil, I'm from a different universe” Carlos answered, eyes widened in fright. 


End file.
